Sunday, July 26, after church:

The drummer, Jeff, let Benji try drumming on real drums with real drumsticks.

Tuesday, July 28, after Benji school:

We’ve been talking about how fire engines are a kind of cab-over truck, because the cab is over the engine. Then Benji and I actually witnessed the cab tilting forward to reveal the engine. In Benji’s words, “Mommy NEVER seen this before!” It was quite cool, to be perfectly honest.

Wednesday, July 29, Benji and I had a free day just us two.

We went to downtown Kirkland and bought croissants, then played in the Peter Kirk park for a while before going to Benji’s new nirvana, Eastside Trains (in Benji parlance, “The Train Store,” because there is only one). He wept bitterly when we had to leave, and immediately started talking about when we’d go back. This also reignited our interest in playing with trains, and the wooden train track at home has been our primary play since then.

Thursday, July 30, at The Root Connection:

Benji mowed their weeds. That’s more green biomass than we’ve seen in one place in months.

Thursday, August 6, was Benji’s last day at Kindering’s Stepping Stones program.

I brought sugar cookies in various shapes and colors to share with the class. The teachers gave Benji a candle to blow out and sang him happy birthday, and did a special song in the closing goodbye time. For our last PT, Benji got to dress up as a froggy. Benji kept saying that it was his last time there, but then saying “Next time, play with trains.” Gotta keep working on the concept of last.

I feel quite sorry that we’re done — the teachers are so wonderful, Benji loves it, and he’s made tremendous progress since starting there, especially in speech (not to mention, we eventually figured out a routine that kept us all happy that I’ll be sorry to lose). But it’s definitely time for us to move on. Benji is turning three, and about age three kids start outgrowing the Stepping Stones program. I think Benji will have a great opportunity to grow at the preschool we picked for him, especially spending time with kids who can model more advanced skills. The next month or so we’ll be in limbo, until his new preschool starts. After that, we’ll just have to figure out what our new normal looks like.

Benji will continue to receive speech therapy services through the school district, 30 minutes a week at our local elementary school. This is pretty much exactly the right amount, I’m thinking, to keep us progressing. His PT services are still up in the air. I’d like to continue his PT, to get him up to physical level with his peers, but the Kindering PT for older kids doesn’t look like it’ll work out. I’m uncertain about starting fresh at a new place, or just not worrying about it for now, so we’re kind of just waiting on that for the moment.